Coaching practices for Use Strengths in New Ways Exercise
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Use Strengths in New Ways Exercise, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I already know what I’m good at, but I only ever use those strengths in the same few familiar places
- I spend so much energy trying to fix my weak spots that my days feel like a grind against my own grain
- I’m trying to reach this goal by white-knuckling through the exact things I’m worst at, and it’s draining and stalling
- The very thing I’m best at turns on me under pressure
- I want to actually get stronger but I’ll never commit to a full lifting session
Practices that may help
- Use a signature strength in a new way each day for one week
Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical - Use your signature strengths in a new way
Identify your top character strengths and deploy one of them differently each day.
Positive Psychology, Made Practical - Set goals that build on your signature strengths
Design goals that let your top strengths be the primary vehicle rather than your weak spots.
VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical - Map how your strengths distort under stress
Identify the "overuse" and "underuse" of each signature strength — how they show up when you’re at your worst.
VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical - Sprinkle bodyweight strength snacks
Do short sets of squats, push-ups, or wall-sits scattered through the day.
Micro-Workouts (Exercise Snacks), Honestly Explained - Bridge from signature strengths to purpose
Identify the top two or three things you do better than most people and trace how they can serve something larger.
The Life Crafting Intervention: Scripting Your Future Self - Identify your core strengths through your own history
Find the recurring threads in your best moments to name the strengths that are actually yours.
Life Review and Reminiscence Therapy - Invest more development effort in your strengths than in your weaknesses
Move from average to excellent in your strength areas rather than from poor to average in your weak ones.
Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical - VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
Peterson and Seligman’s VIA Classification identifies 24 character strengths organized under six virtues, and multiple randomized trials find that using your top "signature strengths" in new ways reliably increases well-being and decreases depressive symptoms. The effect is most robust when strengths are deployed in engaged, relational ways — not just recognized but actively applied. - Use constraint-based drills to isolate one component
Remove degrees of freedom so attention concentrates on a single weak sub-skill.
Growth-Edge Training: Practicing at the Edge of Your Ability
Related concerns
- Develop Strengths Not Weaknesses
Move from average to excellent in your strength areas rather than from poor to average in your weak ones.
Invest more development effort in your strengths than in your weaknesses
- How To Use Your Strengths
Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
Use a signature strength in a new way each day for one week
- Using Strengths For Purpose
Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
- Using Your Strengths
Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
- Character Strengths Exercise
Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
- Character Strengths Overuse
Identify the "overuse" and "underuse" of each signature strength — how they show up when you’re at your worst.
Map how your strengths distort under stress
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.